Panel moots takeover of eucalyptus plantations

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM,  
The Hindu, November 12, 2014

The committee set up to inquire into encroachments on the Kurinjimala Sanctuary and Vattavada and Kottalkamboor villages of Idukki district has recommended that cases of elected representatives and senior officials who have purchased lands in the area be referred to the Lok Ayukta for legal action.

The committee, headed by Additional Chief Secretary Nivedita P. Haran, was set up against the background of allegations of illegal possession of land in the area raised against the LDF-supported candidate in the Idukki Lok Sabha constituency, Joice George, who went on to win the election.

The committee said that though land-grab by politicians, officials and influential persons had come to its notice, their names were not included in the report as the same was not part of the brief given to the committee. The identity of elected representatives and senior officials, who had purchased land in Anchunadu in their own or dependents’ names in violation of statutes, should be collated from annual property returns given by them and report of the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB). The VACB should submit a report in a month.

The committee recommended that the entire Eucalyptus grandis plantations in the villages of Vattavada, Kottalkamboor, Kanthalloor, Marayur and Keezhanthoor, planted by those in illegal possession of the land, be taken over by the government immediately. Cultivation of exotic species such as Eucalyptus grandis should be banned in the Anchunadu area.

It said that all landholders in the area should be asked to establish their ownership. The settlement officer for the Kurinjimala Sanctuary (declared in 2006) had failed to carry out the settlement within the stipulated period. The work should now be formally assigned to the Commissioner of Land Revenue and completed in three months. The land of genuine patta holders should be identified, demarcated and handed to the assignee or genuine legal heir.